IRL/WIAW

Very early yesterday morning I wrote a post about the nine things I feel make up an ideal day for me in terms of making me feel my best, inside and out.  "I can totally do this today," I thought.  I'd even managed to drag myself out of bed not *much* later than I'd wanted.  Because the day's virtual summer retreat topic was about eating healthfully and mindfully, I was going to do a What I ate Wednesday post today, and you were going to see how healthful and mindful I could be.  By lunch time it was all out the window.

So I decided to just honestly recount my day yesterday- the good, the bad, the usual and the unusual.  Some may find this boring, but I actually kind of like reading about the mundane parts of other people's lives so here goes.

My Day 6/1/2011:

4:20am - Push snooze button without actually gaining consciousness
4:30am - Push snooze button and think, "Not yet."
4:40am - Drag self out of bed.  Start coffee maker.  Put in contacts, etc.
4:50am - Drink coffee, do e-mail, write blog post.

    
6:00am - Frantically finish blog post.  Get stuff together to leave for the gym/work.
6:10am - Ride bike to gym.
6:25am - Lift weights
7:20am - Shower at gym
7:22am - Dress.  Realize that- because I'm not at my normal gym (it's closed in the am when classes are out)- I don't have a hair brush.  Try to comb hair with hands.
7:30am - Ride bike to work
7:45am - Starving, inhale oatmeal + PB + applesauce + protein powder concoction while doing work e-mail

Yes, I stir it.

8:00am - Realize project that I need to finish STAT is going to take longer than I thought.  Go get Diet Mt. Dew from fridge.  Frantically work on project.
11:30am - Finish project.  Talk to boss about project.  Have nice conversation with boss about the weather.
11:45am - Report results of project to coworkers.  Everyone is happy.  Breathe sigh of relief.
12:15pm - Go eat lunch with coworkers at Pasqual's at Hilldale.  Do not take picture of veggie quesadilla (no olives, please) or two liters of Diet Coke I drank because I don't want to have to explain why I was doing it, and because I was so hungry I couldn't get it into my stomach fast enough.  Enjoy relaxing lunch catching up with everyone.
1:30pm - Back to work.  Finish putting together a dataset for a collaborator.  Feel guilty because I still haven't finished a dataset for someone who works with that collaborator who made the request months(!) ago.  I just need one more variable!
3:00pm - Start on analyses for presentation boss will give next Wednesday.
4:30pm - Feel brain dead.  Decide I will go home soon because I have errands to run in the evening and need to do laundry.  Wrap things up at work.  Figure leaving 15 min early is okay because I was at work from 8:00-5:15 yesterday with only 15 minute lunch break.
4:45pm - Ride bike home.
5:00pm - Get mail, start laundry.  Flip through catalog.  Lay on couch.  Drink Diet Sunkist.
5:20pm - Play piano.
5:30pm - Daniel comes home.  Talk about day.  Discuss plans for necessary errands.
5:50pm - Flip laundry.  Leave home.
6:00pm - Pick up 1st CSA box.  Discover there is rhubarb in box.  Discuss possibilities for pie.

    
6:15pm - Go to target.  Spend forever picking up pie ingredients, cereal (it's too hot for oatmeal anymore), and soda for co-worker's retirement potluck Friday.
6:45pm - Decide I am too hungry to make dinner when I get home.  Stop at Panera and order turkey artichoke panini and salad.  Snap picture while Daniel is in the bathroom.  Save apple for later.  Devour remainder.

 
7:30pm - Arrive at home.  Get laundry.  Fold laundry.  Put away Target stuff.  Research strawberry rhubarb pie options.
7:45pm - Chop strawberries to help Daniel make pie.  Refuse to taste rhubarb because I'm still full from dinner and hate tasting things.  Assemble pie.

8:30pm - Brush teeth.  Remember I wanted to show Daniel something on the internet.  Grouch at Daniel because I'd told him at dinner I wanted to show him something funny on the internet and if he was going to look at cats all night I would just have to show him tomorrow because I was tired.
8:31pm - Look at cute picture of baby sloth.  Mood improves slightly.

8:45pm - Get ready for bed.  Lay down and start reading article in The Atlantic.  Decide baking pie smells really good but don't want to stay up for pie to finish cooking, cool, etc. so get up and eat a couple Trader Joe's dark chocolate PB cups.
8:50pm - Brush teeth again.  Lay down and read.  Curse downstairs neighbors who keep opening their squeaky screen door and slamming their regular door.
9:30pm - Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The bad (because it's always more obvious, isn't it?):

• Too much soda (yeesh!).  That's abnormal for a day.  Usually I have one, maybe two cans.
• Too much food.  How can I still be so hungry when I work out so much less than I used to?
• Not enough preparing my own food.  Only used delightful organic CSA vegetables to make pie.  Two fast food meals in one day = bad if not on vacation.
• Too much snooze button in am. 
• Stayed up too late in pm (which meant I didn't get up until 4:50 this am)
• Too lazy after work so I didn't get in time on the piano before Daniel got home.
• Didn't spend any time in devotion or prayer so I was more grouchy than usual when I was hungry and/or tired.
• Did not brush hair- other than with hands - all day.

The good:

• Did a blog post.
• Completed a project ASAP to everyone's satisfaction.
• Did not grouch at co-workers while stressed (I think).
• Had nice lunch with co-workers.  We do not go out very often.
• Kept focused during the afternoon when I actually wanted to Zzzzzzzzzz.
• Got errands and laundry completed.  Finally invited neighbor out to dinner (forgot to mention that one above!).  
• Helped make first rhubarb pie.

Arhg!  Now I'm running late again.  And I'm hungry, but I have to run and shower before I can eat breakfast (but good news, I have cereal now).  

And that's me.  In Real Life.

What works

I'm participating in Sarah's summer virtual retreat (If you're not, think about it), and the theme of this week is inside/out - what practices/habits can you cultivate to feel your best.  Having come back from vacation and then spent a busy day at work yesterday, I was thinking about the best of both worlds.  Vacation is a combination of novel and relaxing.  I usually get more sleep than usual, but I tend to eat a lot more and exercise a lot less.  Work is not alway so exciting and there are nights when I stay up waaaayyy too late for my early wake up, but I tend to eat healthier, be more active, and keep up with other activities I enjoy like playing the piano.  So if I could merge all the best of vacation with all the best of regular life, what would I end up with?  Here are the 9 things I consider essential components of an ideal day in the life of Chelsea.

1. Daily exercise - I get very crabby, very quickly when I sit around all day.  I'm like that pet that you thought you could leave in its cage while you were at work.  When you come home, I will chew your shoes, destroy two houseplants, and then use my tiny claws to cling to your head until you let me out for a walk.  As a side note, I've found that not just running but switching things up and doing yoga and lifting weights several times a week makes me look and feel my best.

2. Daily devotion - While I don't feel physically uncomfortable if I don't spend time praying and reading God's word, I feel... disconnected.  Starting my day with gratitude, learning from individuals who show good (and bad!) character through adversity and having an outlet to share my worries helps me focus on what is truly important in life.

3. Daily fruit and vegetables - To me a meal is not complete unless it contains at least one serving of produce.

Sorry, Ragu, you do not count.

 4. Daily music - Yes, 7 million Chinese 5-year-olds are better than me at the piano, but only 3 million are better than me at the first 20 measures of "I heard it Through the Grapevine".  Whether it's an hour or simply 10 minutes before I have to run out the door, I'm happier when I make music part of my day.

5. Daily desert - But not as much as what is still hiding in a sack under your kid's bed leftover from Easter (and last Halloween if you're lucky).

And not for breakfast.  Ummm, can I trade the candy
corn for some strawberry jam?

6. Daily novelty - Sometimes my life is busy and exciting.  Sometimes I feel like day after day is the same and I have nothing at all interesting to say.  Even if all I do is go to the sensory deprivation gym and sit at my desk at work and make Excel tables all day, I want to keep my eyes open for something new/interesting/novel.  It's that or use drugs.

7. Daily caffeine - This is where the drugs come in.  Now stop giving me a condescending look and pass me a Diet Mt. Dew.

I love you, too.

8. Daily (enough) sleep - On vacation, I could easily do 8-9 hours.  I think if I could sleep as much as I wanted every night, my body would naturally fluctuate between 7 and 9 hours.  In real life, I think never going below 6 and sticking some 9s in on the weekend to balance things out is pretty good.

9. Daily unstructured family time - I'm the kind of person who likes to schedule everything, but it never feels right to interrupt a good conversation (or Futurama episode) because it's "time" to read 1.5 pages of April's The Atlantic before I zonk out for the night.  I feel better when I get everything done before the evening so I can just relax and enjoy Daniel's company without feeling like I "should" be getting other things done.

So how about you?  Are you participating in the virtual retreat?  What do you consider essential components to your life?  

I'm about to go work on number 1 right now.

PS - Good news!  The fan is staying.
 

Spring cleaning

Good thing I started this post on Sunday when it wasn't dropping buckets of snow.  Otherwise I would have titled it perpetual winter cleaning. 

We have entered this long winter/spring season where it's not sooo cold that you can only wear your warmest clothing, but it's not warm enough to put the sweaters away for good.  I don't have a huge amount of closest space, so in the past I've put my off season clothes in Tupperware bins under the bed.  But then I spend all "sprwinter" digging things out because of a cold or warm day.  So I decided it was time to get everything out from under the bed and into the closet or my dresser for good.  And because space is so limited, I needed to do some serious thinking about what I should keep and what could be sold or donated.

Before- winter style.  Scarves, hoodies, everything all crammed together. 

Everything laid out for consideration.  Winter stuff on the bed; spring stuff in the bins.

Blank canvas.  Kind of reminds you of a dorm room closet, no?

The finished product.  I hung up all my summer dresses with my dress pants (right).  Camisoles, sweaters (by color) and purses in the middle, and tops and light jackets on the left.  Shoes on the bottom.

Pants, shorts and hangout sweatshirts were moved to a drawer.  Yes, my side of the bed is kind of a deathtrap.

Warm weather/ gym workout clothes were consolidated to one drawer.

And this was one of the biggest differences.  PJs, hang out t-shirts and socks went in one drawer.  That meant parting with a lot of random race t-shirts.  I wear technical tops from races (as long as they aren't too big), but I rarely ever wear the t-shirts.  Goodbye!

Cold weather running clothes.  They get their own drawer, too.

I also tried to make better use of our hall closet.  I hung up my scarves in there so I could actually see them, rather than have them crammed in between items in our bedroom closet.

The "try to resell" piles.  I made about $75 last fall reselling some clothes that I really didn't wear, so I'm going to try my luck again.  Goodbye blue petite length pants.  Why did I buy you and wear you for 2.5 years?  You were way too short.

And the donate pile.  Goodbye Tevas from my freshman year of college.  You have been wet so many times, your bands give me hot spots when I wear you.

It really is nice to be able to see all my clothes all at once.  For one, it dispelled any notions that I didn't have much to wear.  

Second, I'm planning to hit up a big sale at ATL on Saturday (30% off everything plus I have a gift card from Christmas), and it gave me some idea of what I might really need.  I'm good on tops, but I actually only have two pairs of non-jean summer weight pants, so I'm thinking these guys look pretty versatile.  Another possibility is some new capri pants.  I have two pairs that I really like and have worn forever, but I bought them when I was about 10lbs heavier so while they technically fit, I really put the drawstring to work.  Depending on prices, etc. I'd like to try to find at least one whole outfit- maybe with a top with long sleeves that is not a solid colored sweater?  I'm never very good at putting things together, and I end up being the queen of solids.  

I'll definitely have show and tell when I get back.  For now it's time for yet another snowy trudge out to the bus and a spin on the treadmill.

Can we be done with winter yet?

I'm guessing the rest of you are with me on this one.

I celebrated being off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day by driving through the slush to the dentist, cleaning and organizing the kitchen (because I was not driving anywhere else), letting Daniel drive through the slush to our optometrist appointments and to our small group meeting (which was very small as there was only one other couple able to make it), and hoping nothing important on the bottom of the car got squashed when we parked in our very snowy parking spot.

All of that makes it sound like I had a bad day yesterday, which is actually not true at all.  The gym was empty and I got in a great treadmill run (yay!), I had a good report from the dentist, I finished some home-type projects that have been on my list for a loooong time, I knocked out a once-a-year appointment without having to take time off work (and I don't need new contacts), and we got to spend time talking to friends of ours in a way we can't really in a larger group.

We also tried our new vegetable of the week last night, baby bok choy,

served in chicken adobo with bok choy from this month's Real Simple.  Say what you will about the rest of the magazine, but the recipes are generally good and easy.

 At the end of the weekend I feel rested, relaxed and just a little bit bored and ready to go back to work.  I think I could go for a 3-day weekend every week.

Would you work a flexed schedule (4 10-hour days, etc) to have extra time off on the weekend?
I'd love to, but I know that those last two hours would probably not be very productive for me.  Eight hours is about the limit of my good thinking time.  Sometimes I also think it would be nice to work one weekend day and have one weekday off to do appointments, run errands, etc. while most other people are at work.

Workout:
Yesterday was 8mi on the treadmill doing treadmill track workout #1 again.  This time starting at 8.1 and going up to 8.5.  Today will be weights. 

Shredfest 2011

Yesterday Daniel and I sat down and did our year-end financial review.  I wish I could say this was our annual year-end financial review, but I think this was the first time we've gone through this process together.  I'm normally the one who pays all the bills, works on the budget software, keeps an eye on investment stuff, etc, but we realized that- even though it's not a bad system for us- it would be very bad if something happened to me and Daniel was totally clueless about how/when to pay the bills and what some of our automatic withdrawals are.

First we went through all our files and shredded anything that didn't need to be kept and pulled out any 2010 tax documents to go in the 2010 tax document folder.  Using our file folders as guide, I made a list of all our regular expenses and how they are paid (eg. Car insurance through Progressive 2x per year by check.  Electric bill through MyCheckFree.com) and a separate list of all the log-ins and passwords for all the accounts, which we hid in locations we are *pretty sure* we won't forget.  We checked balances of all our accounts online and discussed any changes we wanted to make over the next year.

And it only took about 2.5 hours (which also includes time spent going through a box of equipment manuals and throwing away the ones for items we no longer own).  So my point- other than to get to post a picture of a sheep made of shredded paper- is to encourage all of you to do the same.  I'd say we have about the same or possibly more financial paperwork than your average 20-somethings, and 2.5 hours per year is a great investment in knowing where you (or your family) is at financially.  However, it's one of those things that everyone (including us) dreads doing for some reason.  It's not that bad!  Take part of a cold/rainy Sunday afternoon before tax time and just do it!

Workout:
Treadmill track workout #1 again.  Hoping the nasty weather keeps the undergrads from being back in force at the gym this morning.    

In the bag

Yesterday Sarah at the SHU Box did a neat post about what she carries around all day as an endocrine fellow.  I thought it was fun to get a glimpse into the daily life of another blogger, and thought I'd do the same for myself today.  I have an office and a desk so I included a little of that in addition to the bag I carry back and forth to work.  Here's Chelsea's essential tools for life and work:

The top of my desk, featuring the computer, the phone (where I get calls for everyone other than me), a tennis ball for massaging computer shoulder, standard office stuff like tape and pens, my daily log book (on the left), my calculator, and scratch paper (very very important).

I try to keep a little summary of what I do every day in my log book.  What I did, where things are saved, etc.

I have a mountain of "oops" print outs and use the back for scratch work.

Then the essentials drawer- deodorant, almonds, make-up, toothbrush... it's all in here.

I also have a bunch of informational stuff pinned to my bulletin board.   For example, units and reference ranges for lab values that maybe one day I'll remember (no, probably not).

And now for my actual bag.  Never buy a light colored backpack.  Those stains never wash out.

 And the contents.  Not too much because I'm able to leave so much at work.  I've got my purse (easier to keep the contents in there and just transfer the whole thing), my lunch bag (which usually goes in the fridge when I get to work), an umbrella, random pens and pencils, and of course, my planner.

 So there you have it.  I think it would be neat to see other people do the same thing (hint, hint).  Hope you have a great Friday.  I'm off to do a long run because I'm leaving for Mississippi tomorrow morning.

The future is in my hands

in the form of my beautiful new planner.

This is a myAgenda Planner, made by the momAgenda company.  I first saw one of their planners in a little stationary/gift store in Sheboygan.  Unfortunately they only had one planner left, and it was a momAgendga for 2009-2010.  Fortunately, when I Googled them after we got back home, I found that they had non-mom products that had all the features I'd liked about the one in the store.

First of all, it's thick, but not too big lengthxwidth-wise.  The cover feels sturdy, and I don't think the fabric will rip too easily.  There are pages with things I don't care about- like birthstones reminders and a mini address book I know I'll never use- but that is one of the few minor drawbacks.

The planner has both a month view (which I tend to use less frequently)

And a week by week format that I know I will use a lot.

What I love is that it is sectioned off into regions that you can title yourself.  My current planner has good space for writing, but the lines are all done by time, which I basically ignore.  I might get tired of having to write in the categories week to week (which I'm tentatively thinking of having as MIT's- most important tasks of the day, my workout, the meal plan, any chores/errands/appointments scheduled for that day, and other important events- Birthdays etc.), but on the other hand, if my initial system doesn't work, I can revise.

I also like that Saturday and Sunday get a full share of planner space.

And there are two markers- one for the month view and one for the week view.

There's some other questionably useful information and space like a holiday/birthday calendar section.

Notes on restaurants, etc

Some planning sections

And blank pages for random jottings

Sadly this little guy will sit in the kitchen catch-all basket until July 26 when he (She?  It is a sparkly purple planner after all) will be put into action.

If you like this sort of thing, check out Sarah's give-away!

Quickie

Not much going on right now so rather than writing a rambling post, I'm going to try to catch up on a little Google Reader-ing before heading out for 6mi this morning.  I'm planning all sorts of exciting posts about more Eat Drink and Be Vegan recipes and my new My Agenda planner that I just got in the mail yesterday, but those will probably have to wait for the weekend.

Catch ya' later.

It never rains in Southern Wisconsin

Just doesn't have the same ring to it as Southern California, huh?  And it definitely rains here.  Interestingly, though, something about the lakes

protects the areas from storms.  Sure we get a lot of weather, but not a lot of blizzards, tornadoes, and the like. Which makes it kind of unusual that we're in the middle of a huge thunderstorm right now. 


Good thing I rearranged my running schedule so I got in today's run yesterday and will be in the gym this morning.  Yesterdays' run was... meh.  I was supposed to run 4x3min fast, and even though I could have done it physically, I just wasn't in it mentally.  It wasn't that I started running fast and then couldn't hold on to the pace.  I just got to the end of the first three intervals and though, "Actually, that wasn't hard at all."  I pushed myself more on the last one, but by that time it was a little late.  Oh well.  I do almost all my speed workouts two weeks in a row so I have a chance to redeem myself next Tuesday.


One other benefit of running yesterday is that I was able to take some sunrise pictures.  Think this x 20

The idea was that I was going to be able to use one of these as the photo in my header.  But I fear I have 2 problems.  1.  The photo quality is not very good.  and 2. I can't figure out how to get the picture to be sized correctly for the header.  Does anyone have any tips on how to do this?  Maybe I need to give up and try to find a stock photo of a sunrise I can use...


Taking a new direction here...  Productivity Monday was a success.  I was able to:

• Identify a problem and work toward figuring out the solution.
• Be helpful to both our post docs (I can tell being helpful at work is going to be a new year's resolution for 2011)
• Not check my e-mail from 8am until lunch at noon.
• Batch all my distractions like making an appointment and checking to see if we have spinning tomorrow for after 3:30pm.

And most importantly I didn't feel any pain from the loss of my distractions.  In fact, I actually felt free of them.  It was great.  Let's see how this goes for the rest of the week.

Last but not least I had a major dinner success last night.  Spicy peanut chicken from Cooking Light (see sidebar for recipe) served with steamed broccoli and brown rice.

I have this complex that I'm not good at making sauces, so when D asked me if I bought the sauce in a jar or made it myself, I took that as a compliment!  One of the hardest things about tomato sauces is making them not taste too tomato-y, and this recipe definitely succeeds in that.  

Well, gotta run!  Don't want to miss the bus in this weather.  Have a great Tuesday, all.

Productivity Monday

After a 5-day mini vacation (including a furlough day and the weekend), I'm headed back to work feeling physically and mentally recharged.  Will this renewed energy translate into increased productivity?  I hope so.  I'm a great worker when I feel a time crunch (aren't we all?), but it can be hard to sit in front of a computer and focus for hours on end without a deadline looming.  It may not be stressful like a night in the ER or a day on the stock market floor circa October, 2008, but it presents its own challenges.

I read this post called 13 Small Things to Simplify Your Work Day on Zen Habits right before I signed off for vacation.  He has a lot of great suggestions about how to be productive when you work in front of a computer, but a few in particular spoke to me:

1. Make a short list - I like my job but there are some Mondays when I really don't want to go back.  Why?  I feel overwhelmed.  I have so much to do, and it all needs to be done yesterday.  Rather than sitting down and taking on the challenge, I want to check my e-mail 500 times.  I need to spend 10 or 15 minutes to survey the landscape and/or check in with the boss to figure out what my top priorities are rather than looking at a big list and reeling.  The second hardest thing is determining exactly what tasks need to be done to complete those projects and developing a short, manageable list of what I'd like to have finished before I walk out the door at the end of the day.  And better to make that list a little shorter so I can cross everything off plus an additional task rather than leaving 10 things unchecked.

2. Batch distractions - For me that means two main things:

• Turn off the e-mail.  I don't need to check every piece of junk that comes my way.  E-mail on using laser question answering devices and handling difficult students has nothing to do with my job, and I can batch delete these babies at the end of the day.  Part of my resistance to doing this is that sometimes my boss sends e-mails about things that need to be done STAT, but the truth is he calls when he does that.  

• Do all my personal Internet stuff in designated chunks.  Because the reality is that I'm going to do it, and really it's okay.  No one expects us to sit and do work without ever taking a brain break.  But the problem is that little breaks can turn into big ones if left unchecked.  And big breaks do more than just eat up time.  You lose focus and it takes time to redirect your energy back to the thing you are actually supposed to be working on.  So my goal tomorrow is to batch my internet distractions for right before lunch and right before "clean up my desk and get everything organized for tomorrow" time.

3. Clean your desk - A clean desk is so much more calming than a messy one.  And you can actually find stuff.  Not much to say here but always important.  And again, this is a good task when you need  a break from concentrating.

4. Take breathing breaks - Babauta actually recommends getting up and stretching or doing deep breathing every 15 to 20 minutes.  I think this would be distracting on a regular basis, but it's the perfect remedy for one of my biggest focus problems at work: 30 seconds of down time.  I have these little 30 or so second blips of time when I run a program that are just perfect to check "just one blog".  After all, I can't work when the program is running, right?  But it takes another minute after my break to come back and remember what the heck I was doing.  It's a major time waster.  Rather than opening a web browser I can get up and stretch or put something away.  I'm not really disconnecting from the task at hand, but I'm not sitting around doing nothing while the program runs either.  Also, now that the weather is nice, I can get up and take a short walk in the afternoon if I've had a particularly boring/frustrating day.

5. Practice a Focus Ritual -  When you feel lost, unmotivated, or bored or find yourself checking your e-mail over and over, come back to your task list.  What small, attainable thing do you need to do next?  Figure that out and then move forward.  Take some deep breaths and let the overwhelmed/frustrated feelings pass.

Hopefully both the break and the suggestions from this post will help me when I'm staring at a huge list of tasks and e-mails this morning.

What else is going on???
The Easter Bunny visited our house yesterday morning and left some surprises:

This reminds me of the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others.  One of these things is not the same."

I ran another easy 5mi yesterday, and today's plan is 7 with 4 x 3 min hard.  Normally I'd do strength training today, but it's supposed to thunderstorm tomorrow morning so I'm pushing it back.

Dinner last night was one of my favorites: mushroom pizza.  With a Cadbury Egg for desert.

What's your favorite kind of pizza?  What do you think about the new template???  I think I like the lighter color better.  My mission for this week is to take a picture for the header, but all the stars will have to align to get the image I want.  

Have a great Monday, all! 

New Year's Resolutions 3 Months In

We've just finished the first 1/4 of 2010 (!!!!) so it's time for a resolution check in.  In a way it seems kind of silly to think about new year's resolutions after the second week of January, but because I'm semi-interested in actually keeping them, I'm doing another check in.

1. Put away everything after I use it- Hmmmm... I'd say I'm getting a C+ in this one.  For the most part I get dishes washed after I use them and I'm not leaving my clothes in a pile on the dresser.  But sometimes I do.  And that sometimes is becoming more frequent.  I need to get on this one.

2. Focus at work - Wow, this one definitely has peaks and valleys.  Some days I'm totally on.  Some days I'm a distracted child.  Playing music seems to help when I'm doing tedious stuff, but I still have the bad habit of checking "just one blog in Google Reader" while I'm waiting for a long program to run.

3. Get out of my comfort zone when it comes to exercise and eating healthy - This one deserves at least a B+.  After years of thinking I had to do cardio 6+ days a week, I've cut back to 5, and so far it's been a great decision.  Two strength training sessions a week allow me to 1. Recover from a though workout, 2. Prevent injury, and 3. Tone up a bit.  So why have I resisted doing this for so long?

4. Have more fun with more people  - I'm still an introvert, but we did have our first dinner party, and I really enjoyed it.  The next few weekends are going to be busy, but I definitely want to do more dinner parties and social stuff in general.

5. Take more pictures - Maybe, because anything greater than 0 would be an improvement.  I still don't know why I'm resistant to it.

6. Keep in touch - Boo.  Another fail.  I'm good at calling my parents once a week, but there are a few of you out (I don't think any of whom read my blog) there that I'm soooo lazy about calling.  I miss you!  I'm sorry I'm a lame friend/family member.

7. Music - Yes!!!  Piano is going well (except that I haven't practiced much this week due to feeling yucky every evening).  I really enjoy playing an instrument again.

8. Waste less time - Hmmmm... I think this has been pretty good.  I'm trying to do yoga and piano every day after work rather than... say... watch Say Yes to the Dress, but sometimes (like this past week) I just collapse on the couch in a puddle.  Oh well.

9. Read real books - I think I've also been pretty good about this one.  I read Soul Searching, which is an academic book about the sociology of teenage religion in America.   And Breakfast at Tiffany's, which is (I guess) a classic.  And I'm in Leviticus in my chapter a day Bible reading (and what's more serious than regulations on mildew?).  In fact I don't think I've read anything without any redeeming value in awhile.  So hopefully I'll get my library request for U is for Undertow soon.      

10. Do a better job on the blog - I think so.  At least this one is a work in progress.  I've changed up the layout a bit and am trying to post every day and add more color and pictures (which this post is completely lacking).

All in all, I think I deserve a C+ or B on resolution keeping, which is pretty good considering I'd actually forgotten what some of my resolutions were!

Did you make any resolutions this year?  Do you still remember what they were?  Have you kept up with them?    

Worth it

I'm tired and sore... I'm not sure that none toes froze off... but going to the dance was totally worth it. Yeah, there were a lot of high schoolers getting one more wear out of a prom dress, but there were older people too, and we went with a group so we brought our own party.


So now you know I ended up choosing dress D.

We started with dinner at the Great Dane and headed over for the dance around 8:30pm. It was a little lame until the band started playing at 9pm. The music at all of my high school dances were done by a DJ, but having the interactive element with the band made it a lot more fun. Plus because most the members in the band actually do the music at church on Sunday, you felt like you "knew" them. They played a good mix of old and new stuff to keep everybody happy. At 11pm, we were all pretty tired and ready to call it a night. Why do so many songs require jumping?

Now I'm taking this morning slow and easy. I slept in until 7:30am and am not planning to run until before lunch. Yes, I like to keep myself on a regular schedule, but I'm working on convincing myself sleeping late and running late one weekend morning won't ruin everything. Otherwise this weekend I have some errands and chores to do, but I want to take at least a little chill out time. Yoga and piano are also on the list. I think part of my problem is that (and I'm sure I'm not alone) I have a hard time transitioning from work mode to weekend mode. It's hard to get back in the swing of things on Monday, but by Friday I'm still ready to work the next day so I'm feeling a little anxiety about all the things on my work "to do" list that are waiting for me Monday. BUT I know that mixing work and weekend time is counterproductive. Let work time be for work and rest/recharge time be for resting and getting ready for the week to come.

Well, I'm going to go make a good-faith effort at relaxing + being productive. Happy Saturday, all.

Refreshed

Yep, that's what 2.5 hours of couch time on Saturday afternoon will do for you. I hate to "waste" my Saturday afternoon sleeping or reading, but I always find that if I give in and chill out for a little bit, I feel sooooo much better. In fact I felt so much better I cleaned up all the kitchen cabinets and wiped down all the easy to miss surfaces like the top of the fridge. And I'm ready to go and in a much better mood today.

Today we have church, our last membership class (yay!) and the youth Super Bowl party. I'm also planning on getting in some yoga, piano practice, dusting, vacuuming, and going through my sewing/craft stuff. And I don't feel any resentment toward that list. YAY for rest.

Otherwise not much is going on. No run today. I feel energetic enough to do one, but I'm not sure my body is ready to handle 5 days in a row with my increased mileage. Plus my run yesterday, even though it was slow, felt unusually hard. I just need to throw myself into yoga and cleaning, and I won't feel so lumpy.

Hope you all have a great Sunday!

Isn't it great to learn something new

I had a great treadmill run yesterday, following the treadmill track workout in my book Training Plans for Multisport Athletes by Gale Bernhardt. I did a 2 mile warm up and then 3x3:30, 2x2:30, 3x:1:45, 3x0:50 intervals. The I set the treadmill on 7.0 for the first 3 sets and 7.1 for the last one. The goal of the workout is to finish at a faster speed than you started. It was challenging without being awful, and I want to stick with it every Tuesday until it gets warm enough to get outside.

Anyway, the "learning" part of this was that I realized I could increase my pace during the intervals if I walked a little bit during the rest. This is a-okay with Gale Bernhardt. She says the important thing is to make sure to get your heart rate down during the recovery period and even tells you to walk rather than jog in a different set of treadmill workouts. Anyway, I think I'll improve my speed next Tuesday just by making this small change, but I'm happy that I made it through the workout yesterday feeling successful again. That's really key for me keeping my motivation up.

The other thing I've been learning about is personal organization. I've been reading Getting Things Done by David Allen. I'm almost through with the book, and I've already started putting some of the practices in place. He has a lot of good suggestions, but the book is about 70% jargon. I think I'm going to read it a second time once I finish to make sure I really understand what he's trying to communicate.

Otherwise I'm just enjoying the relatively warm weather. I might go out and run tomorrow depending on the cold/ice factor, but I might just run inside again since my fight with the treadmill seems to be over.